High-voltage quantum well waveguide solar cells
2011
Photon absorption, and thus current generation, is hindered in conventional thin-film solar cell designs,
including quantum well structures, by the limited path length of incident light passing vertically through
the device structure. Optical scattering into lateral waveguide structures provides a physical mechanism to
dramatically increase photocurrent generation through in-plane light trapping. However, the insertion of
wells of high refractive index material with lower energy gap into the device structure often results in
lower voltage operation, and hence lower photovoltaic power conversion efficiency. In this work, we
demonstrate that the voltage output of an InGaAs quantum well waveguide photovoltaic device can be
increased by employing a novel III-V material structure with an extended wide band gap emitter
heterojunction. Analysis of the light IV characteristics from small area test devices reveals that nonradiative
recombination components of the underlying dark diode current have been reduced, exposing
the limiting radiative recombination component and providing a pathway for realizing solar-electric
conversion efficiency of 30% or more in single-junction cells.
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